Last week new
mounts were added to the Marketplace store in
EverQuest II. This week, get a chance to win one of them FREE! Simply
send an email to [email protected] with the subject line "Gimme a
Prowler!" for your chance to win.

Additionally tune into
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/podcasts/live">Ten Ton
Hammer Live this Saturday at 7pm EDT for another chance to
win one of these cool new mounts. Participants will need to be in the
href="http://omfg.fm/?p=Chat">podcast's live IRC chat
for to enter the contest.

Winners of the Loading... mount giveaway will be announced Friday, May
28, 2010. Winners of the podcast mount giveaway will be notified during
the show.

Loading... Daily

Before I get started, let me just point out that yesterday we launched
our all-new
style="font-style: italic;">Guild Wars 2
community site. The community site will be covering
style="font-style: italic;">Guild Wars live as
it ramps up to Guild
Wars 2, so be sure to check back frequently for new
interviews,
guides and more.

style="font-style: italic;">Mass Effect has
just had movie rights signed by Legendary Pictures. This
could be good news or bad news. Traditionally speaking, most games made
into movies don't do so well. We needn't look further than some of Uwe
Boll's works to see that. Super Mario Brothers? Please. However, the
good news is that games made into movies often do much better than
movies made into games.

If Legendary Pictures does the movie well enough, it could be a
fantastic flick. I wonder if they'll get the same story writers from
BioWare to do the script. BioWare sure tells one heck of a story in
their epic RPGs and if the movie ends up with a weak script it will be
painful to Mass Effect fans. More importantly though, BioWare may end
up looking like a cheap sell-out if that happens; not something you
want during production of your first MMORPG, that's for sure. (Though
who knows how long the movie will take to make?)

In other news,
style="font-style: italic;">EverQuest 2
launches its highly-anticipated game update 56 today,
otherwise known as Halas
Reborn. That's right, the barbarians finally have a home
to call their own. Well, actually, any good/neutral will have a new
starting city to explore. New raids, new travel system, a cool
storyline feature that lets you quickly and easily stay caught up with
the lore of the game, shader 3.0, more PvP, more loot, more
awesomeness. It's a huge patch and its just one more step in the right
direction for the SOE title. Be sure to check out
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eq2/previews/gu56">Savanja'sHalas Reborn
preview for more detailed info. I don't care
what embittered former SWG players say, SOE has proven it knows how to
make and improve a great MMOG with EQ2.

What reassures me even more about this game is how new producer, David
Georgeson, views the game's future. We spoke with him earlier this
month on the Ten
Ton Hammer Live Podcast and his aspirations and goals for the
game are not only well thought out, but actually feasible. Who
knows, maybe this time next year, EQ2 may be recognized by more than
just the current fans and its reach may actually... reach.

Last bit of news off the press this morning comes from our friends in
Scotland. As it turns out, Realtime Worlds has realized that
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/84760">porting their
upcoming new MMOG, APB,
to consoles may not be a simple matter.
Lead Designer EJ Moreland stated that it will be a different game that
fits better for the system. That's a pretty open-ended comment, but it
makes sense. You can't have the same type of MMO experience on a
console as you do on a PC. It's just not possible. Ever try to jump
into Final Fantasy XI
using just the keyboard and mouse? Not exactly intuitive. And,
conversely, if you try to cram MMOG controls into a streamlined console
controller based UI, you're going to miss something.

Maybe it's not just the controls he's talking about. Maybe instancing,
syncing of hundreds of clients, world hosting, multiple AI... maybe the
consoles just can't pull it off like a PC. That'd be a shocker. But
let's face it. PCs are more conducive to MMOGs than consoles. There, I
said it. They just have more guts, and many more options when it comes
to optimization and script solutions. Any MMOG you put on a console
will need to be watered down, or at least in some way more simplified
than what it would be on the PC. Unless you released a watered down PC
version as well. Which would be dumb.

Disagree? Let me know in the forums.

Shayalyn's Epic Thread of
the Day

Okay,
so, games don't always translate to movies well--it's kind of a thing.
But every now and then a game comes along that we all know would make
an amazing movie, and that we all hope Hollywood won't screw up. It
looks as though Hollywood is about to get its hands on BioWare's epic
sci-fi saga, Mass Effect. Legendary
Pictures (300,The Dark Knight)
has acquired the the film rights to the acclaimed
single-player blockbuster, and allegedly tapped Mark Protosevich (I
am Legend)
to pen the script. Good idea? Are you anxious to see the events and
characters of Mass Effect on the big screen? Head over to our forum to
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=51483">talk
about it!

==============================

Awesome Quotes from the
Epic Thread

"Update: Director set as Uwe Boll."

- Anacche

"Haha...very funny.

Jackass!"

- Dalmarus

==============================

Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums?
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=32559">Tell
us!

Each
month, we pose a question to our developer friends, and each month they
impress us with their candor and the diversity of their responses. This
month is no exception. We asked Ten Ton Hammer's
href="http://tentonhammer.com/membership">premium members
to provide questions for the developers, and we chose one for them to
answer. This month's question deals with the future of user-generated
content, from mods to complete quest packs, in MMOGs. Big name
developers from Trion's Scott Hartsman to 38 Studios' Curt Schilling
weighed in with responses both thought-provoking and passionate. Get an
insider perspective in this month's Dev Talk!

In
North America it is no secret that we like things big--the bigger the
better. And when it comes to free-to-play MMOGs none has ever been
bigger than Allods Online. In both budget and
content there are few
games that can rival this Russian import. Join Jason Medawky Bolton
as he reviews this subscriptionless powerhouse and measures it on the
facets most important to todays gamer  gameplay, graphics, UI and
value.

Long
ago there was very little floating combat text in World of
Warcraft,
but then Blizzard implemented its own version of the several available
and popular scrolling combat text addons and included it in the default
UI. Several scrolling text addons still exist out there that
further
improve on what Blizzard implemented. Parrot is one of the many
popular ones out there, but with the base UI already having existing
functionality, is it worth adding?

This
week on Ten Ton Hammer Live! the boys "celebrate" Jesse's 29th birthday
with nonsense and revelry. More importantly, however, they are joined
by StarCraft II's Neil Kaplan, the voice behind
Tychus Findlay and the new audio book StarCraft:
Heaven's Devils.
Neil enlightens us on his experience as the voice that defines an
entire game, and then promptly WTFPWNS Jesse. News this week focuses
purchasing in game items, hacking x-box's, and paying a few million for
your ideas. Gamer Food takes us back to look at some stats about the
"Double Down," and we end the show with one of the funniest master
looters in recent memory.

Our Guild Wars 2
community site
has launched and we're already introducing the newest feature to the
site: The GW2 Weekly Report. Every Monday we're going to be coming at
you with the recap of the previous week's news, where Nicholas is
located, and a look at everything that's going on in both Guild Wars
and Guild Wars 2. Be sure to check back each week to pick up a fresh
copy.

Guild Wars: Beyond, the ongoing series of updates to the
original Guild Wars, is currently in the "War in Kryta" phase. The
Shining Blade, rebels against the evil White Mantle, have declared war
and are currently retaking their kingdom. Our guide goes over the
history of this event along with how to participate, how to find the
Shining Blade camp, and how to farm the valuable War Supplies to obtain
your very own Royal Gifts.

Whether
attacking a well defended node in PvP, soloing an elite mob twice your
level, or taking on an instance boss with two players AFK, World
of Warcraft is
full of opportunities to take risks. Sometimes these risks place the
player in a hopeless situation, while others can result in amazing
successes. But making the right split second choice to push forward or
fall back in these situations can sometimes be a confusing ordeal.

Today's
Hottest Articles, Guides, and Features

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/interviews/dev_talk/2010/may">Dev
Talk: Top MMOG Devs Weigh in on User-Generated
Content